Mothercare continued to make baby steps towards recovery as it revealed that
sales had stopped falling in Britain.

Simon Calver, who was appointed chief executive a year ago to reverse the
steep decline of its domestic business, said yesterday that there were early
signs of improvements and that it was ahead of schedule for closing
loss-making stores.

Shares leapt after the announcement, closing up 8.1 per cent at 315¾p.

Overall worldwide sales rose 3.5 per cent in the 11 weeks to March 30, or 6.9
per cent after the closure of its Australian and New Zealand franchise
business was taken